Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 642

As Rembrary finished wrapping the corn cobs with plastic wrap, Shin Jooyoon started driving again.

Once all the corn cobs were secured in the bag, Rembrary rested his arm on the window frame and stared blankly out at the passing scenery.

Shin Jooyoon didn’t even compliment him on his wrapping skills. It was another reminder that Shin Jooyoon had lost his memory.

Perhaps Shin Jooyoon had even forgotten that Rembrary was a racer. Yes, he must have forgotten.

He had even forgotten Noir, who had hammered a nail through his own hand.

“Hey, Shin. Do you remember that I’m a good driver?”

“With that face of yours, you’re quite the con artist, aren’t you? You can’t drive.”

“Has your memory returned?”

Rembrary’s face lit up.

Shin Jooyoon answered with a faint smile, barely perceptible, on his lips.

“I saw the records of the car I lent you getting wrecked periodically. It would be difficult to forget that.”

He only remembers useless things. Rembrary frowned and looked out the window again.

“Still, you called me a racer. Remember that.”

“I said that? Where?”

“In my imagination.”

“…Do you consider that something I actually said?”

“No, I’m trying to make things sound better since you lost your memory.”

“It’s more like fabrication than beautification.”

The devil’s domain, surrounded by a large wall, finally disappeared from view beyond the window.

Rembrary was about to embellish the past even further, but he realized this wasn’t the time. There was something he needed to say.

“Right. I was going to tell you in the dungeon earlier, but I was too rushed and forgot. Your memory isn’t completely erased.”

Shin Jooyoon glanced at Rembrary.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It seems like the demons couldn’t completely erase it, so they’re trying to drive a wedge between me, Taeri, and you. They must think that way you won’t be as close as before, even if your memory returns.”

“Taeri too?”

“Didn’t they lock Taeri in the dungeon and even steal her phone?”

Shin Jooyoon was silent.

*Doesn’t he believe me?* Rembrary looked at Shin Jooyoon’s profile. He wore a serious expression.

*He seems to be seriously considering my words in his own way.*

“Keep talking.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“About my memory. The reason you guessed that it wasn’t completely erased, or something like that.”

*He’s so picky.* Does he really need to hear even that? Rembrary thought listlessly, then spoke.

“I don’t think it’ll be hard to find your memory. If it wasn’t completely erased, and there wasn’t an easy way to recover it, they wouldn’t be so anxious.”

Even as he spoke, Rembrary expected Shin Jooyoon to say something like, ‘It’s all just speculation anyway, right?’ as Shin usually did.

However, Shin Jooyoon didn’t deny it right away. He quietly turned the steering wheel and drove, and then, near a fork in the road, he said something unexpected.

“The demon I met before I lost my memory… Lavrum, was it? That guy.”

“Huh?”

“The conversation I had with him. I remember everything else, but I especially don’t remember the last thing he said. Maybe that word is the key. If the way to find my memory is surprisingly easy, like you said.”

“I gave you a very big hint. Aren’t you grateful?”

Rembrary became proud and puffed up, then came up with a better idea and suggested.

“멸치 [Myeolchi, literally ‘anchovy,’ often used as a playful or teasing nickname], I just came up with a really good idea.”

“……”

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“Tell me. Don’t mix in weird rhythms.”

“Weird rhythms?”

“Like what you did earlier.”

*That nasty 멸치. Does he not even want me to call it rap?*

Rembrary was a little dejected at Shin Jooyoon’s vague dismissal of his rap.

But it wasn’t the time to dwell on trivial matters, so he readily shared his great idea.

“Let’s play a word chain game.”

Shin Jooyoon was silent. For quite a long time.

Rembrary grew tired of waiting and urged him.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

Shin Jooyoon asked back instead of answering.

“Are you bored?”

He must be ignoring Rembrary’s brilliant idea. Otherwise, he wouldn’t ask that.

“When you play a word chain game, all sorts of words come out, right? Among those words, there might be the word the demon erased? So I’m suggesting we play a word chain game.”

Shin Jooyoon moved his lips a few times.

*If he refutes, I’ll strike him down with great logic.* Rembrary firmly resolved and looked at Shin Jooyoon.

Sensing that ominous energy, Shin Jooyoon sighed and suggested.

“Okay. You start first, then.”

“Lavrum.”

Shin Jooyoon clicked his tongue at the word choice that blatantly revealed the intention to defeat the opponent from the first round.

“Isn’t it unfair to use a name?”

“What does it matter? It’s the name of the culprit of this whole thing. Are you afraid you’re going to lose?”

“Roommate.”

“Triathlon.”

Shin Jooyoon felt the urge to stop the car again.

“Aren’t we playing a word chain game to help me find my memory? Do you think I talked about triathlons with the demon?”

“Then does that mean you lost this round?”

“Rondo.”

Rembrary answered gently as Shin Jooyoon answered right away because he didn’t want to lose.

“Thief.”

“……”

“Then did I win? Are you going to grill meat?”

“I don’t think we even talked about meat.”

* * *

As they passed the highway and entered the city, Shin Jooyoon suggested in a heavy voice.

“It’s useless to keep playing word chain games with you. Let’s do something else instead.”

Rembrary had just lost to Shin Jooyoon three times in a row, so he didn’t want to accept the suggestion.

But when he thought about it carefully, it was originally disadvantageous for him, a person from another world, to play a word chain game with Shin Jooyoon.

He somehow won the first time, but he had been losing ever since.

After thinking about it, Rembrary reluctantly gave in, saying, “Alright.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I forgot a lot of information about the demon while losing my memory. So, I want you to guess what kind of conversation you might have had with me based on information about the demon.”

“Ah, twenty questions?”

“Not a game. Just guess.”

“Then you have to tell me the conversation you had with the demon before that. You said you remember almost all the other conversations.”

Shin Jooyoon recalled what happened under the dim streetlights.

The demon appeared without a sound. It had no face, and it had a bizarre sense of style, wearing a dog collar with a chain around its neck.

The demon asked Shin Jooyoon for something. That was……

“It wasn’t a long conversation. You were the one who did most of the talking. He asked me to help him. Ah, he asked me to pick up his leash.”

“Leash?”

“And he repeated the words three times, changing the expression slightly each time.”

“So what did you say? Did you pick up the leash?”

“I froze him as he was. But the opponent ran away before being completely frozen. What I don’t remember is what the demon said to me as he ran away.”

But unexpectedly, Rembrary said right away.

“I think I know.”

“You know?”

“If it’s a word that repeats three times while wearing a dog collar, there’s only one thing.”

*Was it this easy to regain his memory?* Shin Jooyoon stopped the car in the alley and looked at Rembrary, harboring a glimmer of hope in Rembrary’s confident words.

“What is it?”

“Woof woof woof.”

“……”

After staring at Rembrary’s expression, which was confident in his answer, Shin Jooyoon started the car again and firmly denied it.

“That’s not it.”

“Then bow wow wow?”

“……It’s not a dog barking sound. He was wearing a dog collar, but he wasn’t imitating a dog.”

Shin Jooyoon was even more disappointed in himself for trying to sincerely listen to that eccentric.

It was clear that his judgment was constantly clouded by the fact that the eccentric had recklessly tried to save him in the dungeon.

“Is that so? But if it’s about guessing what someone wearing a dog collar said, wouldn’t you be better at it than me?”

“!”

Shin Jooyoon stopped the car again and looked at Rembrary, but Rembrary had already reclined the seat and was lying down, so he couldn’t be seen.

When he turned his head a little more, Rembrary patted his back.

“Drive. Let’s go. Move.”

* * *

*What did he mean by that?*

After arriving home, Shin Jooyoon gave Rembrary the flamboyant gold pajamas that Jang Taeri had given him while suggesting ‘exchanging useless gifts,’ which he had never even tried to wear, and carefully examined his expression.

Before losing his memory, had he told that seemingly light-mouthed eccentric something… about revenge activities? He was suspicious.

But there was a big risk in confirming it.

That guy might have said it half-jokingly. If it was a joke, asking about it would be even more suspicious.

Anyway, if that eccentric also knew about Runak, it might not have been just because he was a healer that they were close.

“Your taste is similar to Gamjae’s [Gamjae is likely a reference to someone with similar flamboyant taste], 멸치.”

“It’s Jang Taeri’s taste. Were you two really close?”

“Where are you trying to scam me?”

Rembrary, who showed trust only in Jang Taeri, still didn’t ask if there was anything else he could wear and obediently walked to the guest room.

“When that friend changes his clothes, please take the clothes he wore and wash them.”

Shin Jooyoon also asked the employee working at the house separately, and then he went into his bedroom.

His clothes were also dirty with blood and dust. But the blood on his clothes was mostly on his sleeves.

After changing his clothes, Shin Jooyoon put the messed-up clothes in a basket and placed them in front of the door, then closed the door and walked to the study connected to the bedroom.

*Somewhere around here……*

He went to the study and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the books that filled the bookshelf one by one.

Rembrary’s suggestion to guess the words he had forgotten by playing a word chain game was ruined because of his competitive spirit.

But the idea itself was good. If he just modified it a little.

*Here it is.*

Finally, Shin Jooyoon found what he wanted and sat down at his desk.

* * *

Rembrary connected his phone to the charger, then lay down on the bed and recalled the conversation he had with Noir in the dungeon.

Noir’s words about understanding Aquari’s feelings were strangely unsettling.

*Is he trying to stimulate me as much as possible before amplifying my emotions? Like this? Or are they trying to isolate me so that I’ll be in trouble with them if their plan fails?*

Rembrary sighed and slowly closed his eyes.

Even if there were various things to worry about, there was only one path to take in the end.

*Let’s go back into the dungeon tomorrow. I might be able to get in this time. I have to find Taeri and… destroy Dungeon No. 1 too. But next time, I should leave 멸치 and the lion behind.*

* * *

The next day.

Rembrary opened his eyes, checked that it was 2 PM, and slowly went into the bathroom to wash his face.

His body was always in top condition thanks to the divine power, but perhaps it was because he had experienced various things yesterday. He seemed to have unintentionally overslept.

*Did 멸치 wake up and go to work?*

When he went to the kitchen, he saw the cook busily moving around, making stew, preparing zucchini pancakes, and seasoning bracken [a type of fern used in Korean cuisine].

Rembrary found the anchovy stock pack that the cook seemed to have used to make the stew and laughed to himself.

“You didn’t eat breakfast and slept in, so you must be hungry? The president will be having lunch soon, so please wait a little and eat together.”

“Is he home?”

“Of course. Here, have this.”

The cook cut a pear and put it on a plate. Rembrary took it and sat down at a nearby table.

As he was eating the pear, Shin Jooyoon really appeared.

*Is 멸치 tired too, so he’s going to rest today?*

Rembrary thought blankly as he crunched on the pear.

As he was doing so, Shin Jooyoon passed by him and asked, “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.”

Rembrary answered while eating the pear, then looked at the back of Shin Jooyoon’s head.

Shin Jooyoon was taking water out of the refrigerator.